Wednesday, January 5, 2011

GOP Backtracking on Promised 'Reforms' Before They Even Get Started

What the frak... Can anybody say they're surprised by this? And why are we calling this backtracking. Why don't we call it what it is...LIES... Campaign lies. They say what they need to say to get elected, to motivate their base, with some hollow pledge to America. And as soon as they take power...it's just more of the same. Are we going to see the GOP engage the other side? No, because Boehner is all talk and no action. But I guess that's what happens when you spend a couple years just saying NO, you become useless.

I'd like to see Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic leaders take Boehner up on the challenge he has raised, not try to demean it. He said, for example, that rather than stifling debate through the manipulation of rules, "we should open things up and let the battle of ideas help break down the scar tissue between the parties. ... Let's let legislators legislate again."
It would be great if the leaders could engage each other seriously at the start of the next Congress on rules and procedures for doing the nation's business. There's no excuse for the House failing to pass a budget resolution, as happened for the first time this year. As Boehner said, it boggles the mind that spending bills for major government departments are lumped together in an indigestible mass.

When large majorities of the nation's voters voice disdain and distrust for a Congress that is supposed to represent them in writing the laws, it is not just a problem for one party or the other. It is a threat to our system of government.

As it turns out, nobody should have taken Boehner seriously. For example, remember that time you were warned that the GOP don't really care about reducing the deficits? You should, because when I say "that time," I mean, "allofthetime." But the editors of the Washington Postonly just got the news Monday, so for the benefit of anyone else who's been living beneath a rock lately, here's another reminder, from Brian Beutler:

Republicans' deficit reduction platform, which may have helped catapult them into the majority, is about to run headlong into a hard reality: Many of their key policy goals will increase the deficit dramatically.
To get around this fact, they've included measures in their new rules package to exempt some of their biggest legislative priorities from deficit consideration. Among the exceptions, which the House is likely to consider in the 112th Congress, are the health care repeal bill (scheduled for a vote a week from Wednesday), the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts, an AMT patch, extending the estate tax, and more.